AI is not adding to Canada’s GDP like it is in the U.S., new analysis says

Detailed summary

A slower adoption of artificial intelligence has had a net-neutral effect on Canada’s GDP, new analysis says. But long-term productivity gains are still possible.

A slower adoption of artificial intelligence has had a net-neutral effect on Canada’s GDP, new analysis says. But long-term productivity gains are still possible.

Analysis from Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) economists says they don’t expect rising AI investments to add to Canada’s GDP growth in the same way as in the United States.

Claire Fan, a senior economist with RBC, said Canada is beginning to invest more in AI infrastructure, but those investments are being made in computer and peripheral equipment made in other countries.

Over the first half of 2026, these purchases surged 28 per cent, according to national accounts data.

However, Fan said 75 per cent of this equipment is imported from outside of Canada.

“We are a little bit behind. Canadian businesses are adopting at a slower pace than American businesses,” Joël Blit, an economics professor at the University of Waterloo as well as co-founder and co-director of the Canadian AI Adoption Centre, told Global News.

While Blit said he agrees that investments into AI infrastructure are directly benefitting the economies that produce them, not Canada’s, he said that is not the most important question economists should be asking.

“Productivity, I expect, is gonna rise significantly,” he said. “But that is going to take a little bit longer because you need to make these investments and then they have to work their way through until you can actually produce in these new ways with this new technology.”

Blit studies disruptive technologies which include things like electricity, computers and the internet. He said the first stage involves inserting the new technology into the current workflow as a direct replacement.

Opening of the article, excerpted from Global News. To read the rest, open the article on the publisher's site.